


A Different Kind of Love

by Weevilo707



Series: Davekat Week 2015 [2]
Category: Homestuck, MS Paint Adventures
Genre: Davekat Week, Day 2, Established Relationship, M/M, Species Dysphoria, Species Swap, and the trolls are now human, davekat - Freeform, from the retcon timline, i hope i'm using that tag right, karkat is not happy with this, they win the game
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-01
Updated: 2015-08-31
Packaged: 2018-04-18 10:21:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,315
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4702466
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Weevilo707/pseuds/Weevilo707
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It worked. They won the game. </p><p>When Karkat wakes up in the new universe, he quickly discovers that it didn't feel the need to much accommodate the leftover players two universes removed. It was easier for the game to turn them all human and call it a day. </p><p>It was not easier for him though, not by a long shot.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Different Kind of Love

Karkat did not want to wake up. Fuck waking up. He was going to sleep forever and not a single fucking being in paradox space could stop him.

One of those torture awake-ringers the humans liked to use for some fucking reason started going off and Karkat groaned into his pillow. Maybe if he ignored it the thing would eventually shut the fuck up.

After probably five minutes of lying with his face in the pillow he finally conceded that it was not going to stop on its own. It sounded like it was so fucking far away too, not anywhere near the nerve grating high pitch he was used to.

Lifting his head, Karkat was taken by surprise being the device about a foot away on some weird side table.

Frown deepening, he reached over and shut the infernal thing off. Must be almost out of batteries or something.

It took a few seconds for his brain to process the fact that he did not recognize the awake-ringer or the side table in the slightest. Quickly pushing himself up, Karkat scanned around the room. It wasn’t any room on the meteor and it wasn’t any room in the kid’s session that he’d seen.

It seemed to all come back to him in a rush.

They won.

Fuck.

Karkat kicked the red and black patterned blanket off of him, scrambling to get out of bed and figure out what was going on. Everything felt numb, muffled somehow. He ignored the feeling, sure it was just due to the shock and ended up falling on his face after about two steps.

“Shit spitting fuck,” he grumbled, glancing back to see if he’d tripped over anything. The floor behind him was clear. He must have tripped over his own feet like a dumbass. Good fucking god, he is a god and he can still do this kind of shit? That wasn’t fair.

Pushing himself up, he caught sight of the offending foot, freezing in his spot.

That was not his foot.

It was a weird tan color, similar to John’s or Jades but just a tad darker. His claws weren’t orange anymore but clear and they couldn’t even be considered claws at all they were so thin and dull.

It was not his at all. It wasn’t even a troll’s foot. It was a fucking _human’s._

“Oh fuck, oh no,” he muttered, holding his hands up in front of his face and finding similar discrepancies between what they should be and what they were.

His (not his) hands flew to his (not his) ears and they were small and rounded off. Reaching further up into his hair (wrong texture so fucking wrong) the top of his head was smooth, no horns to speak of.

No. No, no fuck no they did _not_ get rid of his horns too.

Looking around the room he managed to see a small mirror on the desk, running over (felt wrong his feet were too short where the fuck were his claws) and grabbing it to get a look at himself.

The person staring back at him fear stricken was somehow both very familiar and yet he’d never seen him before in his life. It was still all of his features, translated as best as they could to a human body. His lips weren’t black anymore and his eyes were white and brown instead of orange and red-tinted grey. His teeth looked dull as shit too.

His hair was still a dark black, thank fucking god. He wasn’t sure what he’d do if he ended up with something as ridiculous as Dave’s light ‘blond’ hair, as he called it. Karkat had told him that the name was stupid and they should just call it what it is, fucking yellow.

Karkat felt himself lock up again at the thought. Fuck, _Dave._ He’d been about to try to contact him or anyone else who would answer before he got distracted by all of… this.

Putting the mirror down, he turned to his husktop. Computer. This was a human computer, not his husktop.

That didn’t matter though, as long as it let him get in contact with everyone else it could be a fucking walkie-talkie for all he cared.

There was no Trollian on this thing, so he tried to pull up Pesterchum instead. When his search for the program came up empty he could feel his digestion sac drop.

Stomach. He guessed it was called a stomach now. Fuck these words were stupid.

Walking back over to the bed he collapsed down into it in defeat. He’d try again, but just after he processed everything. Why the fuck was he a human now? Was this some sort of last sick joke by the game? Of fucking course it couldn’t help but screw over Karkat Vantas one last time.

No wonder everything felt numb. Humans couldn’t fucking perceive shit. All the smells that should be there were muted and so were the sounds and fuck if something was going to attack him he’d have no god damn way of knowing if he didn’t see them coming right at him. How the hell had these things even managed to survive this long as a species?

Rolling over so that his face wasn’t smooshed into the mattress, he could start to see why the humans always insisted on sleeping on these things. It felt a lot better than it ever did to his troll body for some reason.

Karkat jolted up when something started playing music. Looking around, he couldn’t tell where it was coming from. Holy fuck these ears were useless. Pulling at the blankets, he eventually heard the music get louder and then the sound of something hitting the ground. Looking to see what it was, he saw some sort of communication device. Without a second thought he picked it up and answered it.

“Hello?” he said, only then realizing that he never bothered to see who it was.

“Oh thank fuck you’re okay,” Dave’s voice came through the speaker and Karkat’s couldn’t help but instantly flood with relief.

“You are too. Fuck, there’s no Trollian or Pesterchum in this shitty place. How did you contact me on this thing?” he asked.

“It’s a phone dude, and you were just in my contacts. Everyone else is too, so they’re probably in similar situations as us,” Dave explained. Before Karkat could speak he added “Also Dirk is like, here with me, so there’s that,” he said. Karkat found himself nodding even though the other boy couldn’t see him.

“You’re probably all grouped up with your alternate ancestors,” he said.

“So, what’s with you? Kankri there or did the ghosts get cut from the final script?” Dave asked. Karkat shrugged, situating himself back on the bed.

“I don’t know. I’ve been a little too preoccupied with my own issues to leave this block,” he said.

“What issues? Everything okay?” Dave asked, worry seeping into his voice. Fuck, Karkat really wished he was here right now and not just talking to him through these shitty communicators.

“No, everything is _not_ fucking okay,” he said, voice straining. He wasn’t used to this body yet, he couldn’t control it as well.

“Shit, what’s wrong? Should I head over there? Where ever the fuck there is. Do you know where you are?” Dave was asking rapid fire.

“No, I don’t know. I just woke up like fifteen minutes ago and I haven’t done anything but try to contact you and mope around like the fucking pathetic sack of shit I am,” Karkat snapped.

“What’s wrong?” Dave repeated, not shaken at all by the way Karkat was close to a breakdown.

God, he didn’t know what he’d do without him.

“I’m a motherfucking human,” Karkat said, just how pissed he was about this slipping out in his voice. Dave didn’t say anything for a moment, probably trying to take that in.

“Wait what?” he asked finally, sounding absolutely dumbfounded.

“I’m a fucking human. My horns and claws are gone and my skin looks fucking weird and I can’t _hear_ or _smell_ anything anymore!” Karkat explained.

“Shit, did the game do it?” Dave asked.

“I guess so. Fuck Dave I hate this, everything feels so wrong I want to throw up,” he muttered, curling up even further in on himself. Now that he was aware of all of the differences they were impossible to ignore and it was so fucking overwhelming.

“Shhh, it’s okay, you’re gonna be okay man. Karkat, think you could maybe look around your house for something with an address? If you’re close then I’ll come right over,” Dave said. Karkat nodded, only remembering afterwards that Dave still couldn’t see him. He started to force himself out of the bed as he answered.

“Yeah, alright I can do that,” he said, figuring it was at least something to distract him the slightest bit. Leaving the room, he started down some stairs, having to hold onto the railing just in case.

“See anyone else around?” Dave asked.

“No. Should I have like, some sort of guardian? My lusus was a giant crab Dave,” Karkat said as he searched around for something with an address on it.

“Uh, yeah you probably should. I mean, not everyone does, but usually it gets real complicated and shit if you don’t and are underage,” Dave explained. Karkat finally managed to find what looked like a piece of mail with his name on it.

“I think I got the address,” he said.

“Alright, give it here,” Dave said. Karkat read aloud the address for him, hoping desperately that it would be close enough for Dave to get here soon. He’d talked about how before the game him and the other humans had been so far apart none of them had even met each other in real life.

Karkat had no fucking clue what he’d do if that was the case with them right now. He really fucking needed to see Dave as soon as possible.

“Same state, so far so good. Just let me look it up real quick,” Dave said. It wasn’t long before Karkat heard a sigh of relief on the other end of the phone.

“I can be over in like ten minutes. Think you can hold yourself together until then?” Dave asked.

“Yeah, I’ll just keep looking around this place,” Karkat told him. It was pretty distracting trying to figure out just what fucking life the game had decided to give him.

“Alright, see you soon.”

“See you,” Karkat said, a small beep signaling the end of the call.

Dave would be here soon. Karkat put the communication device down on the closest table and tried to actually pay attention to the hive he was in. House. Fuck.

There was a couch close to the table that had the mail on it and some TV screen hanging on the opposite wall. A door that probably led outside was a little to the left of the couch, but he wasn’t going to look and see quite yet. A window was above the couch but the blinds were drawn shut.

Walking into another room he ended up in the nutritionblock. Oh fuck, did this mean there would only be human food for him to eat from now on? Opening the hungertrunk, that seemed to be the case.

Leaving the nutritionblock he started back upstairs, wanting to see if he could find _anything_ that might have made it over from his universe. Back in what he supposed was his room he found a collection of movies and games on a shelf. Digging through each one he either recognized them as ones Dave had shown him or had no fucking clue what they were. The big problem was that they were all very distinctly _human._

“Come on, please just give me something!” he pleaded, tossing movies over his shoulders. He was not ever going to see some of his favorite movies or read any of his favorite books and he’d never see a piece of media with quadrants in it in his life. He might fucking suck at them himself but that didn’t mean he didn’t have the same passion he’d always had for them.

He could feel tears welling up in his eyes and fuck he did not want to cry over this. Wiping a tear away his touchstubs came back with a small amount of clear water on them. He knew what human tears looked like but it still was a reminder of just how wrong this was.

He never fucking thought he’d actively want his tears to come back his mutant red but that’s what was happening.

A knock at the door behind him was the only thing to alert him that there was someone else in the hive.

“Karkat?” Dave asked through the door.

“Yeah,” Karkat called back to him, not bothering to turn around as he heard the door open. It was so quiet, everything was so fucking quiet. As Dave came closer Karkat realized he couldn’t smell him at all and he felt like fucking sobbing at that.

“Whoa man it’s okay, let me look at you,” Dave said, sitting down on the floor with him and tilting Karkat’s head up. He let him, Dave wiping away a few more tears that had leaked out with his thumb. It used to be so much easier to see through Dave’s shades but now he could barely make out the shapes of his eyes as he scanned over Karkat’s face.

“Well, the good news is you’re still hot,” Dave said in a serious tone after a moment. Karkat wasn’t able to stop the small smile that broke out over his face as he leaned his head forward and butted Dave softly in the chest. The action just reminded him that his horns were gone and caused the smile to drop at fucking light speed.

“Everything is so fucking awful, I can hardly smell you at all anymore,” Karkat muttered into his shirt, wrapping his arms around Dave’s waist. 

“You used to smell me?” Dave asked, resting a hand in his hair and another on his back.

“Yes, and I fucking liked it,” Karkat said, Dave chuckling a bit at his answer.

“Why did you toss your movies everywhere?” Dave asked after a moment.

“I was trying to see if there were any with trolls or quadrants,” Karkat explained. He could feel Dave nodding, shifting slightly to pull Karkat into his lap. The tears were starting to fill his eyes again and this time he wasn’t trying to stop them, instead just pressing himself harder against Dave.

“Shoosh man, it’s gonna be okay,” Dave muttered, moving the hand in Karkat’s hair to cup his cheek. A small jolt ran through Karkat at the sound, and he pulled away a bit in order to look the other boy in the face.

“Do that again,” he demanded, confusion showing on Dave’ face.

“Do what again?

“Shoosh me,” Karkat said.

“Shoosh Karkat, shoosh,” Dave said, lightly tapping at his face as he did so. It felt like there was a rock dropped into the bottom of his digestions sack and Karkat let the tears come as he clung to Dave once again.

“Noooooo.”

“What’s wrong?” Dave asked, worry clear in his voice.

“It’s not the same. Fucking hell Dave, you really _can’t_ have pale feelings, can you?” Karkat said, a hopeless sitting in his chest. It was something fucked up about him and this whole relationship yes, but he’d taken nearly a sweep to accept that part of him and now it was gone.

He was everything for Dave at once but now he couldn’t even feel half of that shit anymore.

“It’s not that we don’t have those feelings it’s just that we don’t really do that whole shoosh pap thing or label it,” Dave said, rubbing at his back.

“So you’ve just pretended every time I’ve tried to pacify you?” he asked, feeling like even bigger shit. He’d thought he’d been helping this whole time and fuck Dave probably just felt bad for him. 

“No that’s not it. Although I wouldn’t call it pacifying so much as like, comforting. Yeah, shoosh isn’t like, some magical calm down noise for us but it’s still nice and I know you’re trying,” he explained. Karkat nodded feebly, trying to tell himself that he was still very fucking in love with him and if Dave was able to put up with all his weird alien shit he could at least try to understand his now that he was thrown face first into it all.

They stayed like that for quite a while until Karkat was eventually calm enough to stop crying and untangle himself from the other boy.

“Feeling better?” Dave asked.

“No,” Karkat told him truthfully, wiping at his eyes. Ugh, he felt fucking exhausted and sore. He woke up not too long ago, fuck that.

“I promise, being human is not as shit as it feels right now, okay?” Dave told him.

“I doubt that,” Karkat mumbled.

“Just try to give it a chance, since like, there isn’t much else we can do,” Dave said, and reluctantly Karkat nodded.

“Fine, you summed it up in that there’s nothing else we can do to fucking change this, after all,” he said, resting his head against Dave’s shoulder again.

“And if you got any questions, luckily I’ve been a human my whole life, so I should be able to answer most things,” Dave joked.

“Yeah, alright,” Karkat said. A shudder ran through his body as a thought came to him. “Dave?” he asked.

“Yeah?”

“Don’t take this the wrong way. I’m perfectly fucking happy with your anatomy just the way it is, but I’m pretty sure the first time I have to get changed or go to the bathroom I’m going to fucking vomit. Just thinking about it right now is making my stomach churn,” he said. He could feel Dave wince against him.

“Erm, yeaaah that kind of stuff might take some getting used to,” he admitted.

“Dave.”

“What?”

“You didn’t make an innuendo or joke about ‘helping me’ get used to it or anything. It feels fucking wrong. I feel like _I_ need to make one now just to fill the fucking void,” Karkat said. Dave stared at him for a moment before bursting out in laughter.

“Shit dude you’re right, fuck I’m losing my touch,” he said as his laughter started to die down a bit.

“Seriously though dude, if you _do_ need that kind of help,” Dave started, but before he could get any further Karkat punched him in the shoulder.

“Not now. Or anytime soon. Or fuck, I don’t know, give me like at least a week to lose some of the panic here. I’m terrified to even kiss you right now because I don’t know how this body will react,” he said. Dave nodded, running a hand through his hair.

“Well, you really shouldn’t immediately go popping a boner from a kiss, just FYI,” Dave told him. Karkat hesitated a moment before saying the next thing.

“Should we test that out?” he asked.

“Might be a good idea, help you get used to that new body of yours,” Dave said, starting to lean forward. Karkat closed the space, softly kissing the other boy.

It did feel slightly different, although he wasn’t quite able to pinpoint exactly what was off about it. It was still the least awful thing he’d gone through since waking up though, and when Dave deepened the kiss the only thing that was really throwing Karkat off was how dull his own teeth felt.

Well, that meant he didn’t have to worry about shredding Dave’s tongue to smithereens anymore, so there was one plus side to all of this.

**Author's Note:**

> Here's my thing for day two of davekat week. I'm kind of considering actually making this more than a one chapter thing. Let me know if you'd like me to continue.
> 
> As always thanks for reading!


End file.
